October 27 - Roundtable Discussion Night: Tech, Art, Design + Production

When: Wednesday, October 27th - 7pm doors open, 7:3o-9pm roundtables, then bar...
What: IGDA-Montreal Roundtable Discussions Night
Where: Holiday Inn Midtown "La Plaza" - 420 Sherbrooke West
Why: Four in-depth roundtable discussions
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free, but must RSVP - priority for IGDA members (see below)

Everyone must RSVP via montreal@igda.org and indicate which topic they want to participate in. Each topic has limited seating of 20. Priority access will be given to IGDA members in good standing. If you are not a member, you can join online before RSVPing.

Doors will open and attendess can mingle starting at 7pm. Doors will close and discussions will officially start at 7:30pm and will run until 9pm. After the discussions, everyone is welcome to the hotel lobby bar to unwind. The roundtable topics are as follows:

TECH: "Embracing Multiplayer in Our Games"

Moderator: Pierre-Jules Tremblay, Technical Director, A2M

Sub-Topics:

• How do you pick the right data model for your gameplay, e.g. state sharing vs input sharing or message passing, peer-to-peer vs client-server, etc?
• What are the challenges and solutions for integrating multiple platforms and social network into you game?
• How do you scale AI in a world of latency and thousands of players?
• What is the impact of adding online multiplayer into your game? What are the impact on its life cyle?

PRODUCTION: "Leadership Through Moments of Change"
Moderator: Dorian Kieken, Development Director| Mass Effect, BioWare

Sub-Topics:

• Actions to take during important changes (ex: changes in project direction or vision).
• Managing mistakes and failures (taking responsibility, rebounding after a failure, learning from mistakes).
• Dealing with and resolving conflicts.
• Communication during crisis (ex: communicating layoffs or company financial issues).

ART: "Artistic Evolutions"

Moderator: Nicolas Cantin, Art Director | Thief, Eidos
 

Sub-Topics:

• What is the meaning of term "epic art" in the production of AAA games?
• What is acceptable in providing feedback to the player when using visual language for gameplay?
• What is art's role in marketing, and what are the best ways to ensure efficient collaboration?
• How does the art directors role change on "smaller" platforms (eg, Flash, iOS, XBLA, etc)?

DESIGN: "Double-Standard?: Game Design as Culture Creation"

Moderator: Vander Caballero, Founder/Creative Director, Minority Inc.

Sub-Topics:

• Why is it socially acceptable to create a movie about the Polytechnique shooting and not a game about Dawson?
• Should we ask game developers to be aware of how they shape our media and their role as culture creators?
• What role should game developers play in how the popular press interprets games?
• Are game developers looking for attention, or using the expressiveness of games as catharsis for harsh realities?